Press Release
The Islamic Khilafah...the difference between the sticking to principles of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and the compromises made by others

The newspaper 'Al-Masriyoon' published on 29/11/2011 the statements of the general guide (leader) of the 'Muslim Brotherhood' Dr Muhammad Badee' which he made in his weekly address when he said: "That the group was close to achieving its greater objective as specified by Imaam Hasan Al-Banna the founder of the group, and that is the establishment of the just and rightly guided ruling system, its institutions and elements which would comprise a government which would be followed by the rightly guided Khilafah "Caliphate" and leadership of the world".

These statements stirred up outrage from the secularists in Egypt (those who have been battling to preserve the secular system in Egypt since the outset of the revolution on the 25th of January 2011 and who reject in a decisive manner any talk about there being an Islamic form of governance). As a result Dr Abdur Rahman Al-Barr (a member of the leadership council of the group) reacted to address what had resulted from the statements so he went about stripping away the content of the statements made by their leader in an attempt to please and satisfy the secularists and those who are behind them in terms of the western disbelieving states who have been frightened by the rise of the Islamic movement in Egypt and what has accompanied this rise in terms of calls being raised demanding the implementation of the rule by Islam via the Khilafah "Caliphate".

So Dr Al-Barr said according to what was published in the newspaper: 'Freedom and Justice' on the 05/01/2012: "The General Guide did not mean the Rightly guided Khilafah "Caliphate" according to the traditional model where there exists a Khaleefah upon the head of the state who governs Wilaayahs (provinces) and other than that" but rather he meant: "That there would exist a unity between all of the Arab and Islamic states" considering the model presented in the organization of Islamic co-operation and a model that can be developed and built upon!"

This is almost an exact repeat of what happened recently in Tunisia when Hamaadi Al-Jabaali (the number two in the Nahdah party) on the 13/11/2011 in the town of Souso talked about the coming of the sixth Khilafah "Caliphate" which also provoked a wide debate in the Tunisian arena which led him to revise his words by being adamant that the words had been 'taken out of context' and added a message to reassure the opposing parties saying: "That the choice of the Nahdah party in terms of the ruling system is that it has chosen the democratic republican system which obtains its legitimacy from the people". And this speedy revision by Al-Jabaali of his statements opened the door for him to then become the forthcoming Prime Minister of Tunisia. This was followed by the statements from the head of the group Al-Ghanooshi who stated that Al-Jabaali would be the Tunisian Prime minister and not the head of the Othmani Khilafah "Caliphate".

And in the same light Doctor Rif'at As-Sa'eed wote on the web site: 'The poeple of Qur'aan' on the 07/01/2012 an article under the title: 'About the Khilafah "Caliphate" and its delusions' in which he attempted in a manner lacking credibility to present a 'Sharee'ah understanding that negates the opinion that Islam has made the Khilafah "Caliphate" its obligatory system of ruling. He used as evidence the views of Ash-Sharastaani, Al-Jarjaani, Al-Ghazaali and Al-Aamadi who said that the Khilafah "Caliphate" is not part of the Usool (fundamentals) of the Aqaa'id (beliefs) as an argument to say that the Khilafah "Caliphate" is not an obligation. And the Doctor is excused in this consideration of his because he is unable to distinguish between the subjects of Aqeedah (belief) and the subject of the Sharee'ah laws. So the proof for the obligation of the Khilafah "Caliphate" is established upon the basis of the Sharee'ah rules in which the evidences from the Kitaab, Sunnah and Ijmaa' of the Sahaabah are many in number and firmly establish it as an obligation.

Therefore the place of the ruling in regards to the Khilafah "Caliphate" is not within the realms of the subject of the Aqeedah. And I will now report what the Doctor himself reported from Al-Jarjaani in his book: 'Sharh Al-Mawaaqif' when he stated: "The Khilafah "Caliphate" is not part of the fundamentals of the Diyaanaat and Aqaa'id but rather it is from the branches related to the actions of the Mukallafeen". This is because the Hukm Shar'i is the address of the legislator Subhaanahu related to the actions of the Mukallaf (legislatively responsible) servants whilst the Aqeedah is the decisive belief that is based on evidence and conforms to the reality.

And in relation to this Hizb-ut-Tahrir (whose name is synonymous in the Islamic arena with the Da'wah focused on the work to establish the Khilafah "Caliphate") has published a number of statements and leaflets which discuss the current situation in Egypt and have distributed these on a wide and challenging manner. The most recent was that which was issued on 06/01/2012 and it carried the title: "O People of Egypt: Is it necessary to experiment for more decades with a secular democratic state with an elected peoples assembly that holds no power or influence until you realize that the only way out for you is the establishment of the rightly guided Khilafah "Caliphate"?!" and during the distribution of this leaflet to the people a group who had connections with the security services prevented its distribution pretending and claiming that they were from the Salafiyah whereas the true righteous Salafis are those who put the election of the Khaleefah as a priority over the burial of the Messenger of Allah (saw) due to the greatness and gravity of the obligation. As for these, well, they prevented Ustaadh Ahmad Abu Daif a member of the Hizb from completing his distribution of a leaflet that was discussing the obligation of the Khilafah "Caliphate"! And thereafter they handed him over to the police and then he was passed on to the prosecutors office which then cleared the way for his release and returned to him his leaflets.

And as a result of this incident which the newspapers described (falsely) as a violent confrontation between the Shabaab of the Hizb and some Salafis the satelite TV channel 'Dream 2' invited Ustaadh Muhammad Abdul Qawwiy the delegated founder of Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Egypt, Ustaadh Mahmoud At-Tarshooby and Ustaadh Ahmad Abu Daif (who had been involved in the incident) to attend the TV discussion show 'Al-Haqeeqah' which is presented by Ustaadh Waa'il Al-Ibraashi for a discussion which was meant to be between them alone so as to present an outline of the Hizb (its ideas and work etc...). And it seems that the subject of this episode changed overnight when the Shabaab of the Hizb were surprised by the appearance of additional previously unannounced guests who were invited in an attempt to undermine the idea of the Khilafah "Caliphate" and provide a false image of the Hizb. They did this by inviting guests who were well known to reject the concept of Khilafah "Caliphate" however their attempt and planning failed as the show resulted in producing a discussion within the Egyptian political arena and this was followed by a number of newspapers providing large spaces in their papers for articles containing information about Hizb-ut-Tahrir, its ideas and work.

When the TV program introduced the show it read out a statement made by the ruling military council about Hizb-ut-Tahrir but they failed to read the response of the Hizb to this military statement which made clear that the Hizb is an international party that is working to unify the Muslim lands in the Islamic Khilafah "Caliphate" state. However Al-Ibraashi (the host) neglected to mention this for some reason or another!

The guest Dr Abdur Raheem Ali used his turn to try and undermine the idea of Khilafah "Caliphate" by stating that it is not Fard without presenting any Sharee'ah evidence to support his claim. Whereas the role of Dr Abdullah Bin Umar Abdur Rahman (May Allah free his father from the prisons of America, the land which leads the world in its war against the return of the Khilafah "Caliphate") was to focus on trying to give a false and misleading image of the Hizb by putting forward a number of fabrications and lies against the Hizb which he had extracted from a number of books which had been specifically written about the Hizb in the times of the past. The researcher carried these fabrications forward without scrutinizing their correctness and without evidence to support the claims. In particular he showed ignorance when he stated that we consider our Sheikh a Mujtahid Mutlaq whilst at the same time we say that the Messenger of Allah (saw) was not a Mujtahid like our Sheikh. In doing so he made the issue a comparison between the capability of making Ijtihaad which is a strange and quite astonishing matter because how is it possible for him to interpret our statement: "It is not allowed in regards to the Messenger to be a Mujtahid" to mean that the Messenger of Allah (saw) is not capable of performing Ijtihad whereas our Sheikh does have the capability?!

Dr Ibn Umar Abdur Rahman has confused the matter, whether this was out of ignorance or intentional. This is because Ijtihad allows the possibility of being wrong as well as being right and this is not permitted in relation to the Messenger of Allah (saw) who does not speak from his desire and does not say except what is correct. On the other hand it is permissible for our Sheikh and all Mujtahideen to perform Ijtihad and deduce rules which they believe to be correct whilst acknowledging the possibility of an error. He confused this issue making it a discussion comparing the capabilities in relation to the making Ijtihad so that the one listening would think that we have raised the level of our Sheikh higher than that of the Messenger of Allah (saw) in regards to Ijtihad! How unfortunate this understanding would be.

Despite all of this there is no doubt that the Hizb benefited a great deal from this TV program which participated in the breaking of the general blanketing that had been imposed upon the Hizb in Egypt previously. As such the news of the arrest of the Hizb member, his referral to the prosecutors office and his release after that was all mentioned within the news series whereas the arrest of 120 from Hizb-ut-Tahrir in 2002 did not get nearly as much coverage despite its much greater significance and despite 24 of them being presented to the courts and handed down sentences ranging between one and five years.

Verily Hizb-ut-Tahrir has held on firmly to its idea which it calls for in an unrivalled manner, bearing on its path all kinds of hardship and harasment from the security apparatus, patient and anticipating the reward not fearing the blame of the blamers for the sake of Allah. It has continued as such until its name has become tied to the Khilafah "Caliphate" and the Khilafah "Caliphate" has become tied to it and it will remain as such by the permission of Allah until it achieves its goals through the resumption of the Islamic way of life via the establishment of the rightly guided Khilafah "Caliphate" which the Messenger of Allah (saw) gave glad tidings of its return after the oppressive and tyrannical rule. And this is at the time when we see other Islamic movements making compromises one after the other so that they can reach the seat of ruling, so we ask what compromises will they be willing to make so that they can stay in the position of ruling!?

Allah (swt) says:

[قُلْ هَٰذِهِ سَبِيلِي أَدْعُو إِلَى اللَّهِ ۚ عَلَىٰ بَصِيرَةٍ أَنَا وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِي]

"And say this is my way I call to Allah upon awareness. Me and those who follow me." [Yousef, 108]

Sharif Zayid
Head of the Media Office of Hizb-ut-Tahrir - Wilayah of Egypt

The above is a draft translation from Arabic.

Original article: http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.info/info/index.php/contents/entry_1602